With the twang of a guitar, and that trademark voice – the sound of ice cracking as it is engulfed by warmer waters – Dan Michaelson opens his fourth album, Blindspot. From the very beginning of his debut record back…
Category: Reviews
Album | Steve Mason – Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time
Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time is an album that feels divided into two halves, both good in their own way. For those of us who grew up listening to the Beta Band, Steve Mason’s voice is immediately soothing. His…
EP | Bear’s Den – Agape
Agape is a theme of spiritual, Christian love explored by London-based trio Andrew Davie, Kevin Jones and Joey Haynes on their second EP released by Communion Records. Being inextricably linked with Ben Lovett it is unsurprising that Bear’s Den’s sound…
Album | Laurence Made Me Cry – The Diary of Me
In keeping with its title, Jo Whitby – aka Laurence Made Me Cry – kept an online diary of the recording of this debut album in which she at one point noted: “As each track nears finalisation, I’m beginning to…
Album | Daughter – If You Leave
The name If You Leave could suggest either anxiety or a threat, and this record’s songs explore fear in a very honest way, crawling inside the coccoons of anaemic, unready creatures, pulling them out, and putting them in the light.…
Live | Fairport Convention @ The Union Chapel, Islington
There are some abilities that all children of folkie parents have in common. Knowing the words to most of ‘Tempted and Tried’ by Steeleye Span. Being able to hold their own at a ceilidh. Having a favourite Christmas song that…
Album | Low – The Invisible Way
As if Low needed a selling point for their new record, they’ve got Jeff Tweedy on production duties. But if you’re expecting the sonic pallet of a Wilco experience a la Yankee Hotel Foxtrot you’re in the wrong place. Tweedy…
EP | Farewell J.R – Health
The most surprising fact about Farewell Jr’s debut Health EP is that it was recorded in part in Cambridge, Ireland and Australia. Surprising not for the fact that what began as Nick Rayner’s Cambridge-based solo project has so rapidly grown,…
EP | The Golden Troubadours – Beautiful Revolving Jane
You could spend a long time listening to the Golden Troubadours trying to figure out where they come from. In the space of this short EP, their second, they seem to go around the world with a mix of latin…
EP | I Said Yes – I Said Yes
Noel Gallagher can be a grumpy old git. Apparently, among the many things he has taken against – including Liam Gallagher, Christmas, and, perhaps justifiably, bands that say yes to charity gigs and then pull out – the music of…